A Compendium of Water Stories from North-East India

This compendium comprises three parts: First, it provides a general description of the Brahmaputra and the Barak basins as well as the present status of the water resources of the region; second, it includes a brief summary of statewise basin and the status of the water resources of each state; and third, it presents state specific water stories with a short introduction of each narrative. These stories bring to the fore a host of issues involving water in their respective areas and explain how the grassroots communities look at water. The issues presented in this compendium fall in six major categories: (i) stories that relate to people’s daily struggle for securing water for drinking, cooking and other domestic purposes; (ii) development-induced water problems such as, water pollution and contamination of ground water with arsenic, fluoride, iron, and other unsafe materials in water; (iii) water scarcity, lack of access to potable water and other associated issues due to deforestation and destruction of upland catchment forest; (iv) protection and conservation of natural water bodies and traditional in-situ conservation of aquatic life; (v) certain perspectives of indigenous communities about water; and finally, local conflicts over water resource and its ownership, control, and management. In short, this compendium offers a reflection on water scenarios at the ground zero.